Letter to the Editor

As the old saying goes: “When Taylor Swift starts voicing her political opinions, you know shit’s gotten pretty bad.”

Congress has always been a mess, the presidency has been plagued by sex scandals before, but, regardless of political leaning, there’s always been something pure and austere about the Supreme Court. Which is why the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh has been such a blow to the American psyche.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford provided courageous and compelling testimony in Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, but regardless of whether you think he’s guilty, this is still a man who rambled incoherently about beer in a prepared statement, who lied about his high school yearbook to a Senate committee, and who has held on to his calendars for over 30 years.

While the last complaint is more a mildly disturbing eccentricity than a valid disqualifier, everything prior is more than enough reason to give any American pause about the capability of Kavanaugh to take on the responsibilities of the highest court in the nation.

But of course, you know this already. What I’ve written above has been stated in so many words by every major media outlet, late night talk show and impassioned Facebooker in the country. This is the disturbing reality of our modern media: while these issues are serious and absolutely merit coverage, our hyper-analysis of every political gaffe and addictive obsession with palace intrigue has created a modern media that fails to accurately represent the positive change simultaneously existing within the madness.

Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court on Saturday, but just one day before, Jason Van Dyke was found guilty for the murder of Chicago teen Laquan McDonald, an unprecedented victory for those working toward an end to police brutality.

After spending three years without a face, Katie Stubblefield at the age of 21 became the youngest successful face transplant patient, marking a major success for the experimental life-changing surgery.

And, after an Instagram post where Taylor Swift endorsed Tennessee’s Democratic candidate for senator and urged her followers to vote for candidates that supported all human rights, Vote.org saw an unprecedented spike in voter registration, with more individuals registering to vote in the 24 hours after the post than in the entire month of August.

Sharing good news is what we’ve aimed to do in this issue of The Monthly. From Miss America trying to bring itself into the 21st century to a professional magician making magic accessible to all, we wanted to give you, dear reader, a brief respite from our 24-hour news cycle to read about some good.